Lots of Knitting talk lately, time for some Noshing. Here is the menu for Passover. The people who are Kosher are vegetarians, the carnivores do not care about Kosher. That is why there is meat and dairy on the same menu.

Roasted Chicken and Root Vegtables - heirloom potatoes and parsnips and onions and a bunch
of braising greens
Potato Kugel – the real kind, with eggs and butter and cream. No low fat going on here.
Roasted Asparagus with a garlic sauce
Green Salad

Chocolate Macaroons
Passover candy
Hazelnut Torte

To snack on during the Haggadah reading:

Matzo crackers and salsa, - regular and mango
Nuts
Veggies & dip
Fruit & dip
Smoked Salmon spread

Because we go through so much wine (4 cups for each adult) I am asking 2 people to bring wine. I will also have a few bottles on hand, just in case. I am also asking for the Green Salad and the Hazelnut Torte to be potlucked. The rest I can handle without going crazy. I will need to spend most of that day scrubbing the house. I am always so nervous about the house. Why? Who knows. Maybe because we bought a fixer and it is still being fixed and nothing is how we would like it to be.

Husband requested Matzo Ball Soup. That is just too hard to serve to a small crowd so I think I will make that the day before. The Oldest Son requested a Pot Roast. None of the guests eat red meat, so that will need to wait until maybe the day after.

I have tried and true recipes for all of the above. If you are interested let me know and I will post them.

pop-a-lock

Blog land is filled with beautiful pictures of flowers, shouting the arrival of spring. This is how I know it is spring.

Finished Fire On the Mountain socks last night. I had thought they would be done this weekend. Fate - otherwise known as my stupidity- stepped in. About 6:30 last night I headed over to pick up Oldest Son from baseball practice. Practice runs late. It is OK by me. I turn on NPR and knit. About 7:30, as the sun dips below the tree line, I realize that not only have I been listening to the radio, but my lights have been on. &^*% I switch everything off, turn the key, nothing. *&%$*&(^(*! OK, I did swear in the car, but am better this morning.

45 minutes later the Pop-A-Lock guy arrives. It takes longer to fill out the paperwork than to jump the battery. As he begins, he points out the battery terminal. It looks there is some kind of alien life form growing right before my eyes. The PAL guy tells me that because of the corrosion the battery will probably not take a charge. I can expect to have to be jumped again. ****remember this for next time and insert dirty joke****

So my morning will be filled with wire brushes, chemicals and a battery charger. WAHOO!

Good news. Kitty is home. Hungry and happy. He must have been locked in someone's garage.

Bad news. No mousie update.

what's that smell?

I think the mousie may have expired in the kitchen. Last night Husband and I pulled things from against walls. Shined flashlights everywhere. The smell is not too strong yet. Kinda a cross between urine and plastic that has gotten too warm. Nice huh? As soon as the sun is up I will check inside all of the cupboards. Our fear is that it crawled down a heating register and we will need to get the ducts sucked.

The bad news is that kitty is missing. Monday morning he brought us another present. This time left outside the kitty door. He was given treats and catnip. As the kids and I left for the zoo and the yarn shop he was on the deck, in the sunshine, happy as can be. That was the last time we saw him. I guess today we will need to make up posters and get them around the neighborhood. We are all very worried.

And because looking for kitty and the strange smell is not enough I have made good progress on the script for Passover. I probably will not get it done today, but tomorrow seems reasonable. Have it printed on Friday and then move on to the rest of the preparations.

I have just about finished the gusset decreases on the second Fire On The Mountain sock. Such a joy to work with.




A simple cable down the side.



My next pair of socks will be for Husband. I managed to run one of his socks through the dryer. OOPS! I will run the other one through then they will fit my oldest daughter. She is very happy, he gets a new pair, I get to knit them. All is well.

wee tiny sock arrives

Such a treat to open the mail and find this.





A big giant thank you to Jane. The little sock on the left is made from STR Fire on the Mountain. Which you all know is my absolute favorite colorway of all time. The one on the right is called Love Stinks (yeah yeah). Sing it with me.



I have been up for hours. Have tons of work to get done. Yet here I am reading blogs and goofing off.


Maybe the next Wee Tiny Swap could be mittens. I wonder if Emily is planning to do it again?


Passover is fast approaching and in a moment of cough syrup induced hazy reality, I said that I would host the Seder. I undulate between thoughts of "it will be just fine" and "how can I get out of this?". There are many obstacles to overcome. First, I have not been to a Seder since I was in high school. Second, we only have 6 chairs. Third, there is a construction project currently happening in the living room/dining room. Fourth, I do not have a clue what I am doing. Fifth, the house will need to be scrubbed because company is coming. Sixth, this does not really count because there is no way in hell I will get the front flower bed weeded and presentable before next weekend. Things on my side...really great people, no real Seder experience, LOTS of wine.



Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

mousie and zen knitting

When no dead mousie was found I figured it was mortally wounded and we would find it dead behind a shelf. No such luck. It is quite alive and setting up housekeeping.

Remember the speakers your husband had before you got married? The ones that were the size of say, a Smart Car? Well Husband managed to hang on to one of them. It makes a functional corner table in the computer room. This is where the mousie is hanging out. INSIDE the thing, where no human or cat can reach.

So the computer room remains blocked up and I will trudge to Home Depot this morning to find a trap. I hope they make something that works on the catch and release idea. As much sleep as I have lost over this rodent I really do not want to hear the snap of the old fashioned trap.

No knitting pictures. I have been working on a new sock design and every stitch I have knit the past few days has been frogged. More than once. It is definitely time to set that aside and pick up some zen knitting. Maybe something out of the Favorite Socks book.

Lucky for me there is no yarn in the computer room for the mousie to get into. That would truly send me over the top.

wee tiny sock finished

Here is the Wee Tiny Sock I sent off a few days ago for the sock swap.





I did not want to post the picture until I was sure the recipient received her sock. The color is a little off, it is actually a nice bold red. Which is the favorite color of my swapper. With a little cable up the side. Its so cute I may have to make one for myself.

I have not yet received my sock. Maybe tomorrow?

dead rat or else

3 mornings in a row the cat brings in and then kills a mousie/rat thing. I've had enough. I thought the best thing to do was to put a cat door into the garage. That way the cat could get out of the rain but not be able to bring a critter into the house. Husband said that would make the cat bring things into the garage where they were more likely to get lost. I did not care. Lost in the garage is WAY preferable to lost in the house. Husband was not moved.

This weekend was busy. Dance performances, baseball, umpiring, the ballet and a dinner party. The cat was out of site, out of mind.

Earlier this evening everyone is in bed, I am putting away things in the kitchen. The cat bolts through the kitty door. Bad sign. I peek around the corner and he is sitting in front of the coat closet, staring. Bad sign. I open the closet door a bit. He begins to paw at the umbrella. REALLY bad sign.

I let Husband know about my feelings of doom and he begins to pull things out of the closet. Sure enough, there is a rat. The cat has removed himself from the whole situation. Husband and youngest son are trying to catch the thing when it slips away. It heads to the computer room. Husband and youngest son look, but can not find it. Cat is found and locked into the room with the thing. I blocked up the crack under the door.

Right now I am really fucking mad at the cat. His freedom is gone! I will learn to sleep through the meowing. Come morning, there had netter be a dead rat in the middle of that floor.

dear NPR

Dear NPR's Marketplace,

Imagine how excited I was yesterday afternoon when I heard a teaser for your upcoming segment on knitting. I thought to myself, alright they are finally getting it. I mean after all your show is about money and economics. Now imagine how disappointed I was to hear your little fluff piece. Mocking us as quaint. Your "reporter" missed the whole story.

While he was in Edith Eig's shop why did he not bother to ask her what her sales were last year? How about the value of her current inventory? Why did he not ask the people in the shop about their spending habits. Why did he not do some research on the number of yarn stores open today vs 10 years ago? How about online stores? How about artists making accessories and tools for knitters? What about the ad revenue from TV shows? Why did he not bother to follow up on the story of an online knitting blog raising over $120,000 for Doctors Without Borders in a matter of hours? What about Blue Moon Fiber Arts who had their bank reject 2000 credit card transactions for $210 each because they could not believe that so many people would join a club to knit socks. I expected him to run the numbers.

Knitters are not composed of the 68 people in Edith's shop. There are millions of us. We have disposable income and we spend it on knitting. We are business people and artists that would like to be taken seriously and given some respect for our economic might. There is a story here and you missed your chance.

found

The mousie has been found, quite dead. The cat brought it downstairs for the big kids. This is a new tactic that I hope will not become a habit. Downstairs is teenage central and I try to avoid the area. The state of their rooms usually causes me to stop breathing.



This morning brought us a brand new critter in the house. Something needs to be done. I remember the days before the cat door and there was a lot of getting up at night to let the cat in and/or out. Is that better? I do not know. I am willing to take advice.




More pleasant topic...socks.





Here is a finished Inside Out. Nice pattern to knit. A lot of good cable effects with minimal cabling.





The yarn is very different colors in different light. I just love that. I have picked up the gusset stitches on the second sock and should be on to something new this weekend. I am hatching a great idea!



This pair of socks looks like it is going to live at my house. I can't believe it. It will be the first pair of socks from the Rockin' Sock Club that I have kept. Last year I cast on every pair with the intention of keeping them for myself. Each time I would get a couple inches into the knitting and the yarn would tell me that it needed to go to someone else's house. All recipient's were happy as could be, now its my turn. Of course I knit socks from other STR for myself, just not the kit socks.

mutual of omaha's wild knigdom

This morning, I am laying in bed thinking about getting up and I hear the cat come in. Normally when he comes in he is very loud, needs to let the whole house know he has arrived. This morning, nothing. This is a bad sign. The reason he is not meowing is because his mouth is full. Yes, he loves us and brings presents often. I would prefer he left them outside. I would really prefer he killed them first. He has from time to time brought in a little mousie buddy to play with. Of course the mousies do not stand a chance, they truly are toys to him. After a few minutes the mousie stops being so much fun. I usually find him at the top of the stairs.

This morning I hear him playing with his toy. I shut my door and wait for the whole thing to be over so that I can dispose of the carcass. If you interrupt him during this play time he loses track of the critter - bad. Well, the commotion goes on for quite some time. It is possible it is a squirrel. I am trapped in the bedroom, stressed out by the nature sounds happening in the living room. I do not have tea or a laptop. I do have knitting. So I knit. I tell myself I will do the cable and the 9 rows to the next cable and then I will assess the situation.

Eventually the wild kingdom is quiet, I hear the cat go back out, and I prepare to be shocked and horrified by what I find. What greats me as I oh so carefully make my way to to the living room, flipping on every light in the hose as I go? Nothing. Let me say it again and let it sink in. Nothing. That's right. At this very moment there is a not quite dead thing somewhere in the house.

new knitty

The new Knitty is up. What is the first thing you are going to make? Me...this! It is summer perfect. We get 3 whole days of it here in Seattle! Of course a new little bra (ok, little may not be the right word here) will need to be purchased to peek through. What color to knit? hhhmmm.

A few inches are done on the sock formerly known as the penis sock. It needs a new name now. So far so good.

penis sock frogged

While the sock looks strange on the needles it spreads out fine on the foot. The toe was a bit pointy at the sides where it joins the foot, but I, ever the optimist, knit on. Last night I finished the heel, tried the sock on and it was small. The heel was about an inch too short up the back. This morning I ripped out the heel. switched to bigger needles and tried again. The fit was better, but I still did not really like it. As I continued to knit I liked it less and less. It was time to be brave. I ripped the whole thing out. I have cast on again, this time beginning with the leg. I will work the leg chart backwards, use a heel flap/gussets, then use the original pattern on the instep stitches and do a plain sole. Cross your fingers.

penis sock?

I am going to let this picture speak for itself.

wee tiny sock swap

Here is Monsoon wrapped up and ready to go. I put it into balls during bright sunshine and the colors are more subtle. The dark gray has a lot of blue and is the color of the clouds right before a big rain. There is also a very light green in the mix. So nice.

The pattern that arrived with the yarn is called Inside Out. It is very different. Knit toe up with the toe and heel in garter stitch. The foot is ribbed and the leg has a cable pattern. The ribbing on the foot pulls in the toe and makes it looks funny. Of course on your foot it is all smooth and pretty. I have only finished the toe and a couple of inches of foot. I will take a picture after today's progress.

The little sock for my keychain. I used leftover Koigu and it took about an hour. Even my above it all 17 year old daughter proclaimed it to be cute.

Speaking of wee socks. Here is a link to a wee sock swap.

http://yarnmiracle.gweezlebur.com/archive/2007/03/05/wee_tiny_sock_swap.html

I have signed up. It looks to be great fun.

wavy lace, sock blocker and STR

So much to show you! First, the package from Loopy Ewe.

The cutest sock blocker keychain. If the blocker itself is not cute enough there is a pattern included so that you can put a sock on it. This evening I came home from a late meeting, poured a glass of wine and made my little sock. It look about an hour. I will post that pic tomorrow.

The yarn. OMG, it is beautiful. I have not knit with Claudia, but the color is gorgeous and I will be digging into it before too long.

The service from Loopy Ewe is perfect. The package was shipped quickly and carefully. There was a handwritten note with the package and a few extras. VERY pleased and will order from them again.

Here are the completed Wavy Lace socks from Favorite Socks.

A great pattern. People I know have a good chance of receiving

a pair in their favorite color as gifts.

And then there is this...If you are a member of the Rockin Sock Club and do not want to see the new kit, then stop right now, because here comes the yarn...Monsoon. So beautiful. Rich and bold. Dark grey blending into a breathtaking green followed by a tree bark brown. This yarn will be hitting my needles tomorrow.